Newington — A longtime observer of Waterford baseball said the following about the latest group of kids with a chance to make town history:

"Not a typical Waterford team," he said. "They hit."

Heh, heh, heh.

That's a subtle shot at several recent Waterford Legion, high school and Babe Ruth teams whose seasons have ended prematurely because of various hitting disorders.

But the Little Leaguers? Whoa. Waterford played its first game Wednesday night in the Connecticut Little League "Final Four," a four-team double elimination tournament to determine the (ages 11-12) state champion. Fourteen hits later, Waterford defeated Norwich, 11-5.

Waterford will play Stamford North, a 6-2 winner over Southington South, in Thursday night's winners' bracket game (8 p.m.) at Volunteer Field. The winner of the tournament represents Connecticut at the New England Regional next week in Bristol. The winner there goes to the Little League World Series in Williamsport.

"They're a very resilient bunch," Waterford coach Tim Burrows said of his hitters, "and they go up there with a plan."

The plan appears to be hit it as hard as possible.

Ryan O'Connell, the cleanup hitter, nearly hit for the cycle with a three-run double, two-run homer and triple. Leadoff hitter Jared Burrows hit the first pitch he saw for a home run, the fifth time he's done so this postseason. Trey Brennan had three hits, Luke Sokolski had two hits and Anthony Tonucci, who didn't even start, hammered an RBI triple to center in the fourth.

"They're a great group of kids who handle instruction very well," Burrows said. "We have a great group of coaches and even a college coach (UConn assistant and former Waterford High great Chris Podeszwa) who helps us every day."

Sokolski started for Waterford and struck out eight over 3.1 innings. O'Connell worked into the fifth, leaving a bases loaded situation for Connor Podeszwa, who recorded the game's biggest outs. Podeszwa struck out two hitters to escape the inning, preserving his team's 7-2 lead at the time.

"We were a little limited with our pitching," Burrows said. "Connor's been a great pitcher for us and he mixes in a little off speed pitch."

Norwich's Brian Miskiewicz, meanwhile, homered twice. He hit a solo shot in the third off Sokolski to bring his team within a run at 2-1 and hit a three-run homer in the sixth.

m.dimauro@theday.com

Twitter:@BCgenius